Qatar’s commitment to building a world-class education system is now in its fifth year. Education for a New Era has made significant progress in that time, yet much remains to be done. To date, seventy-three Independent schools have been opened and more are planned to be opened as Ministry schools become part of the Independent school system. Increasing the variety of high quality choices for parents and students continues to be a priority for the Supreme Education Council.
In order to offer parents further variety of school choices, over the next few years, the SEC aims to bring private schools into the education system through an educational Voucher Program. Over time, parents will be able to use educational vouchers towards the tuition costs in the school of their choice – either Independent or accredited private. Through this program, the SEC seeks to increase the quality and quantity of educational choices for Qatari parents and to further raise the standards of achievement in the private schools.
This initiative follows the principles that guide the current education system. Schools will remain autonomous, be held accountable for student learning, and a variety of schooling options will, over time, allow parents to exercise increasing levels of choice in selecting the best school for their children from a growing number of alternatives.
The educational voucher system has actually operated in the Independent schools since their inception, and the further expansion of the funding system to the accredited private and International schools brings us closer to achieving our goal of offering parents variety and choice in relation to schooling options in Qatar.
SCOPE OF THE PROGRAM
The voucher program will be implemented in several phases.
Phase I (Pilot Phase): This phase begins on September 1, 2008 and will offer an opportunity to set up the administration procedures for educational vouchers for a small number of recipients. During this phase, we will assess the program mechanism.
The key features of the program in Phase I are:
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A small number of private schools will be invited to join the program and will be expected to meet the inclusion criteria. One of the requirements will be a commitment, once the agreement has been signed, to meeting the curriculum requirements in relation to the teaching of the Arabic language, Islamic studies, and Qatar history and social studies.
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Criteria for student eligibility in the pilot phase:
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The student should be a Qatari citizen
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Parents should not be employees of government or semi-government organizations
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Parents receiving an employer educational benefits are not eligible
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The tuition fee will be paid directly to the schools. The educational voucher will be equivalent to the corresponding elementary, preparatory, or secondary Independent school per-pupil allotment for the 2008-2009 academic year.
Phase II and beyond: The SEC expects to expand the educational voucher program to include more private schools that meet high standards of excellence, resulting in an increase in the availability of high quality educational places for Qatari students. Parents will then have a wider range of options in relation to their choice of school. Ultimately, all students currently eligible for a government-funded education are expected to be eligible to receive an educational voucher. In this way, families will be able to choose either Independent schools or private schools for their children
CURRENT STATUS
The SEC is currently discussing the program with a small number of internationally accredited private schools. Once agreements with the schools to participate in Phase I are signed, the SEC will announce the names of participating schools and, in addition, the procedures that parents who are eligible to receive educational vouchers in Phase I will be required to follow. The SEC is also working with additional international private schools to open new campuses in Qatar in order to expand the number of high quality educational spaces available to Qatari parents.
Questions and Answers
Q: Who are the schools that you are approaching? How did you make the selection?
A: The SEC is talking with schools that appear to meet the criteria for participation.
We will be releasing the names of the schools once the agreements are signed.
Q: What’s in it for these private schools? Don’t they already have long waiting lists?
A: We expect there will be a great deal of interest since these educational vouchers will expand the range of families who can afford to send their children to the school, as well as increase demand for their schools. The SEC is responsible for providing quality education to citizens and residents who enroll their children in these private schools. The set criteria for qualifying for the educational voucher program will ensure the schools’ standards are raised.
Q: Why are you instituting this program now?
A: This program is part of Education for a New Era and Qatar’s commitment to building a world-class education system. The program will offer parents increased variety of school choices, which is one of the priorities of the SEC. One of the choices was launched in 2002 with the establishment of the Independent schools. The voucher program provides the public another choice to enrol their children in accredited international and private schools.
Q: What happens if no schools want to participate?
A: We are confident that private schools who meet our criteria will want to participate. It will expand the range of families who can afford to send their children to the school as well as provide more demand for their schools.
Q: You say that you are interested in equity but those parents getting vouchers can afford to pay. What is equitable about this?
A: In this pilot phase, we are testing the administration procedures for using vouchers for eligible students to use in a select number of accredited schools, approved by the SEC. The SEC decided that working with families whose children are already enrolled in selected private schools is the most efficient way to test the program mechanism. After the pilot phase, the SEC will expand the voucher program so that more parents will be able to choose either Independent schools or private schools.
Q: Why are so few parents getting any benefit?
A: In the pilot phase, we need to have an in-depth view of how the system will operate, so a small group of schools will give us the information we need. After the pilot is completed, we expect to expand the number of schools so that more parents will benefit. It should be noted that the educational voucher system has actually operated in the Independent schools since their inception.
Q: Doesn’t this mean that the private schools will hike their tuition since the government is providing more funding?
A: To participate in the program, the private schools are required to agree that they cannot charge voucher families a higher tuition than those charged other families in the school.
